The United States and basketball go together like Brazil and soccer and Canada and ice hockey. The country is dominant on the international stage and always has a bullseye on its back.
The USA 3X3 Men’s Basketball Team knows what it means to wear those letters and colors as it prepares for its Olympic debut this summer in Paris.
Yes. You read that correctly. A basketball team from the U.S. is competing for the first time in the Olympics. The 3X3 Men’s team failed to qualify for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo when the event was first featured at the Games. It was another disappointment for the country for a team that prides itself on hoops, and has been struggling to maintain its dominance.
Player Kareem Maddox doesn’t make any excuses about what happened.
“No regrets, no blame to go around, but it's just like we just didn't get it done,” Maddox said. “We had a chance. It was three points, four points away from getting it done in any event. But, that's the sport man."
Maddox is one of three players with Colorado ties leading their version of a Redeem Team into France.
“Anytime you play with the USA across your chest in the sport of basketball, everyone kind of assumes that you should be the best and dominate and that's not always the case,” said Canyon Barry, who picked up an injury right before that qualifying tournament and couldn’t participate.
The growth of 3X3 basketball
The International Olympic Committee announced the addition of 3X3 basketball to the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2017. The sport has rapidly grown in popularity over the last three decades.
Organizations like Denver-based Hoop It Up, the Spokane Hoopfest, and Ice Cube’s/Big3 contributed to the sports popularity. Basketball’s international governing body, FIBA, began hosting tournaments beginning with the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. The first FIFA World Cup was hosted the following year.
Local teams and players compete in tournaments throughout the world to gain team and individual rankings.
Bad luck at the qualifying tournament
When it came time to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, the team had to compete in FIBA’s 3X3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Graz, Austria. Bad luck struck the team two days before it was set to leave for the competition: Among the many injuries, Barry hurt his lower back.
“I herniated a couple discs in my lower back and just couldn't walk, couldn't move, was lying on the floor. So they had to bring in an alternate and unfortunately that team wasn't able to qualify for the Olympics,” said Barry, who is an alum of Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs. “So that was a tough pill to swallow when I felt like I had dedicated years to try to make the Olympics and accomplish that goal.”
Their Olympic journey came to a screeching halt when the Netherlands defeated them in the quarterfinals of the tournament, 21-16. Maddox, the only player on this year’s team who completed in that qualifying tourney, said a lack of talent wasn’t the reason they lost. He said continuity was a big factor.
“We just didn't figure out how to play together most effectively and efficiently in the time that we had,” Maddox said. “And that was basically a month before the tournament, given all the restrictions and requirements of COVID we couldn't get together for about a year.”
A comeback from a 'gritty' team with two returning players
Continuity and cohesiveness has not been a problem for this year’s team. The team automatically qualified for the Olympics as one of the top three ranked federations in the world. So, they don’t have to play in a qualifying tournament this time around.
After a training camp at Colorado College’s Reid Arena last May, head coach Joe Lewandowski described this team as gritty.
“I think we lapped the world twice at least with these guys. And that is gritty,” Lewandowski said. “They've earned that every step of the way. So there's been no ‘easy’ to this journey at all. That's what we like about it and that's why they don't take anything for granted.”
Maddox and Barry have returned to the team after playing in the FIBA 3X3 World Tour as members of Team Miami. As of July 12, the team was the #1 ranked team in the world. The players have interesting backgrounds and daily lives when not globetrotting to tournaments.
Maddox played college basketball at Princeton. He was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year his senior year. After playing overseas, he worked in the public media world with experience in Colorado. He was a producer for CPR’s Colorado Matters and was All Things Considered host for KUNC in Greeley. Now, he works in the Minnesota Timberwolves front office.
Basketball fans may recognize Barry’s last name because he comes from basketball royalty. He’s the youngest son of Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry. Like the senior Barry, all four of Canyon Barry’s half-brothers played basketball at the NCAA Division I and professional levels.
“I feel very blessed that I've come from a family that has such a basketball pedigree,” Barry said. “To be able to continue to play the sport I love that has provided so much for my family throughout the years is definitely an honor.”
Barry didn’t start playing varsity basketball in high school until his junior year.
He was recruited by legendary college basketball coach Bobby Cremins to play at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Cremins coached two Barry brothers at Georgia Tech.
After graduating, Canyon transferred to the University of Florida and played for the Gators for a year. He racked up many academic honors along with a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in nuclear engineering.
He currently works as a systems engineer for L3Harris, an aerospace and defense technology company.
Like his father, he also shoots free throws underhanded, a shot that is commonly known as the “granny shot.”
“When you have one of the greatest free throw shooters of all time as a personal free throw coach, you should probably listen to him and try his style,” Barry said. “It probably took two or three years of doing it in real games to get super comfortable. And then my percentage shot up to high eighties, low nineties.”
A Denverite rounds out the team
Probably the biggest addition to the team is Denver resident Jimmer Fredette. College basketball remembers the Glens Falls, New York, native, during his prolific career at BYU. Any time he stepped on the court, it was “Jimmer Time” or “Jimmermania.”
Fredette went on to win every national college player of the year award while he was playing, and he was drafted 10th overall to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Draft before being traded to the Sacramento Kings. Fredette also played overseas in Greece and China and in the summer tournament The Basketball Tournament.
He got involved with 3X3 basketball after being contacted by former St. John’s University basketball coach and current ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla.
“He hit my agent up and then asked me if I would want to play 3X3,” Fredette said. “So, once I heard the word “the Olympics,” being able to possibly do that, I said I was all in.”
With his success and accolades on the court, Fredette admits it wasn’t an easy sport to master.
“There's a lot of players out there that do the little things better than I do. Obviously, I can shoot the ball well and once you get on the floor it's still basketball, right?” Fredette said. “So, you try to use your talent and use your skill level to be able to play. But, you also have to be smart in this sport to be able to play consistently.”
A legacy of gold medals for USA Basketball
The 2020 failure of Team USA to qualify for the Olympics is one of only a few since the sport was introduced at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
The men’s team, the 5-on-5 version, has failed to win the gold medal only three times.
Arguably the most embarrassing moment came in 2004 when the USA returned from Athens with a bronze medal. It was the first time a USA team with professional players didn’t capture gold. It was a reckoning moment for USA Basketball as the rest of the world caught up with them.
Fredette says it’s the other way around in 3X3 Basketball.
“We haven't been playing it very long. These other countries have been playing this for a long time, been putting resources into it, putting guys there and playing and learning how to play and have had the same team for eight years and they know each other,” said Fredette, who has only played the 3X3 version of the sport for a year and a half. “We have a really good pool of guys that we can go to. But it's taken four or five years to put that group together and now these guys that have all played have all played for four, five, six, seven years on tour.”
'Pressure makes diamonds, so let's go'
If the USA 3X3 Men’s Basketball Team feels any pressure of winning gold or reaching the podium in Paris, they haven’t shown it in recent competitions.
Since their last training camp in Colorado Springs, competing as Team Miami, the team has traveled to France, Mongolia, and Canada and placed in the Top 6 each time. They also have two wins in tournaments — in Quebec and Edmonton.
For Lewandowski, it’s not pressure. It’s an opportunity.
“I think pressure is something where you take away all of the joy that you have in it,” Lewandowski said. “And obviously when you get to that stage, it's important when you get out there. But man, what a great privilege. And if it is pressure. Last I heard, pressure makes diamonds, so let's go.”
The team opens the Olympics with pool play against Serbia on July 30.
